1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laser drive circuit and a use thereof.
2. Description of the Background Art
For drives in which compact discs are provided as storage media, laser semiconductor diodes are used to read information from the storage media or to write the information. Laser diodes are needed in different wavelength ranges depending on the employed storage medium technology. Defined light pulses emitted by the laser diode are needed to read or write information on a storage medium. The pulses in this case must be matched to the employed laser diode and the employed storage medium. A matching of this type can also be described as a write strategy in the case of a writing process.
A circuit for current control for a laser is known from U.S. Pat. Application No. 2007/0147450 A1. The circuit has a plurality of digital-to-analog converters, whose output voltage is converted to an output current in each case by a voltage-to-current converter.
A circuit for driving a laser is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,640,381. The circuit has a plurality of digital-to-analog converters, whose output voltage is converted to a current in each case by means of a controllable current source.
A device for generating a drive signal for a laser is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Application No. 2007/0096963 A1. The output voltages are demultiplexed by digital-to-analog converters and stored in capacitors. The amplification of the digital-to-analog converters is set by reference currents. In contrast, U.S. Pat. Application No. 2008/0074970 A1 discloses a method for writing on an optical disk. U.S. Pat. Application No. 2008/0008066 A1 discloses a driver for a laser diode with a decoder.